Hour 2: Poor Seattle/Tacoma housing market, Todd Blanche AG hearing, guest Jim Ciaciuch

Thanks for downloading the Jason Ranch Show podcast. I really do appreciate it. Be sure to check out our brand new website, Seattlered.com. News, opinion, analysis without any of the left-wing spin covering the entirety of the Pacific Northwest. Check it out throughout the day, read stories, share stories, and watch exclusive videos. That's Seattle Red.com. Now, back to the Jason Ranch Show. Oh, Jesus. The yellow light. I'm walking here. Jason Rancho, we are here live on Seattle Red 770 a.m. We are streaming live on the Seattle Red app online at Seattle Red.com. We got a ton to get to, including this morning's Todd Blanche hearing, as he hopes to be given the green light to be our next attorney general. But first, not so good news if you're trying to buy a home in Seattle or Tacoma. That's what's trending. Brought to you by Legacy Capital's Northwest Fund. What's trending? The economy. When it comes to first-time homebuyers, Seattle is not doing great. We are one of the worst. Out of 300 cities that Wallet Hub looked at, the city of Seattle ranked 204 for worst cities in America for first-time homebuyers. And while... It's not as bad. It was close. Tacoma is also on the list at 190th. And that, to me, is more shocking with bigger implications than Seattle being on the list. I'm not shocked that Seattle is on this list. They looked at 22 different measures of affordability, market health, quality of life. Then they basically sorted the top 300 from best to worst. Now, Seattle being on the list, given this is a city of far-left policies that have become the reason why the city is so unaffordable, quality of life issues, we're all suffering from, crime, homelessness, all those things. That makes sense to me. Tacoma is a bit shocking because it had been sold for years as a city that's affordable. It's your affordable escape from the city of Seattle, move to Tacoma. And so for it to be 190th, not that far from the 204 for Seattle, is a little bit shocking. And it says a lot about the wider Puget Sound market. Washington has built one of the most punishing entry-level housing markets in the entire country. One that, you know, we've already seen study after study or survey after survey telling us that. Our home price performance is really poor that we have remarkably high costs that are not coming down dramatically enough with the fact that so many houses are now on the market in the area. But, you know, how many times had we heard that if you're priced out of Seattle, you can move to Tacoma? That is a reasonable alternative. Yeah, there's some tradeoffs. If you work in Seattle, for example, your commute is going to be a... big pain in the backside. But outside of that, you get more space. It's more affordable. It's still like an urban area.

And, of course, left-wing policies are taking its toll on Tacoma. The median sale price was $485,000, according to Redfin. This was based on the March number. That's about 1% down from where it was a year earlier. Pierce County single-family median, however, is higher at $605,000. That number is based in June, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, NMLS. And while the prices softened a little bit, local wages never really caught up, at least according to this wallet hub measure. They say the study weighs housing affordability calculated as a median home price divided by median household income more heavily than nearly any other factor. And so because Tacoma fails that tests, the buyers who once treated it as a cheaper backup or an alternative. are kind of hitting the same wall that pushed them out of Seattle in the first place. Now, I can pick apart some of the methodology here because this is assuming that if you live in Tacoma, you work in Tacoma. And I think that that is not a fair assessment or an observation for them to make. But it is something. I will say there were two, arguably three bright spots in all of this. Number 33 on the list. was Spokane. Now, you have to live in Spokane. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I like Spokane. Are you kidding? No, I like Spokane. Okay. No, I actually like Spokane Valley came in at number 29. Everett was on the list at 125th. So that's not great. But it's also not... awful, right? I mean, that's kind of almost smack in the middle of the listing. So good for Everett. I'm assuming if we went back and looked at it last year, it's probably doing better. The median home price in Seattle is still $865,000 or so. That's according to, I think it was Redfin. We published that story a couple weeks ago. I just... I feel bad for people who are first-time home buyers who are just desperate to set up routes. And last year, as I was looking at a home purchase, I felt worse than I do now just because the prices are so much higher. So the good news is they're starting to come down a little bit. But if you're in a position where you're desperate to set those roots and you really do, you're under... a stricter timeline, I guess, to find a home. It's tough because I wouldn't purchase a home right this moment, right? Unless you found something that is like the home of your dreams and you can afford it, I don't know if I would purchase right now. There are a lot of good investment opportunities right now in a general sense, but that's because if you start to develop now. You know, several years or two years from now, even a year from now, things are going to look so much different. And it feels like you would get a better deal if you just kind of hung out for a bit. And the people who are like, I can't hang out. I got to look somewhere. And now you're looking at Tacoma. It's not quite what it once was. And how many people out there right now listening looked at homes, let's say, right before COVID or right after COVID?

when the prices were in the toilet. Like, oh, why didn't I pull the trigger back then? And it's hard to, right? Like, I remember, I wasn't seriously considering purchases, but in 2020 postcode, maybe it was 2021. I was just kind of curious. I was looking around and we've certainly covered the stories back then about housing. And dear God, you were saving like 300 grand on homes at that point. But no one wanted to really pull the trigger unless you were really wealthy. because it's still risky. You didn't know what life was going to be like post-COVID. You don't know how long you would even have your job with all the layoffs that occurred because of COVID. There were a lot of good deals. So fingers crossed, there's another pandemic we could take advantage. I'm kidding. Shut up. Don't give me that look. You were thinking it too. Admit it. No, I don't want another pandemic. You're like just, but just like just for a month to put down. It's never just for a month. I know. One could dream. I'm shut up. I'm kidding. Push the button. What's trending? Let's get political. Well, Todd Blanche was in the hot seat today in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as he's hoping to become the next attorney general. The context of all of this, I will point out, was something that Democrats want us to forget, which is Eric Holder's comment back in 2015. when he was on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. He's, of course, the Attorney General under Obama. Are you going to stay around for all four years? Well, I don't know. We'll see. Come on, man. Come on, come on, come on. It's a horrible morning show, by the way. Just awful. I need you. I got to ask. Come on, the Attorney General, please. So, well, I'm happy. I'm still enjoying what I'm doing. It's still work to be done. I'm still a president's wing man, so I'm near with my boy. Okay. He's still the president's wingman. He's there with his boy. Okay? We're buddies. I'm his wingman. So now, of course, there are Democrat senators who are pretending that because Todd Blanche was a personal attorney for Donald Trump, he's not going to be independent, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. Is the Department of Justice that you are running independent from the White House? And by the way, this is a bit of a trick question. It is not independent from the White House, as Todd Blanche will answer. The question he really wanted to ask is, will you be acting independently? But he knew that Todd Blanche would say, yes, we make decisions independent. So now that Todd Blanche doesn't directly say, yes, we're an independent agency, that gives them the ammunition to claim that he's going to act on behest of the president rather than the American people. The Department of Justice, like... Every single department in the executive is part of the executive. I mean, Article 2 of the Constitution gives the power of the executive to President Trump.

me, not my leadership, but career prosecutors in New York and career prosecutors in Florida who worked this case hard, did identify other participants, some of whom, as has been discussed, were also victims themselves of Mr. Epstein. But we did not have evidence as of now. of other men that were trafficked, that Epstein helped traffic. That does not mean it didn't happen. And I want to be clear about that. It just means that we have evidence that the FBI gathered and that the Department of Justice gathered. And that's the body of work that we have to work with, which is why I said earlier, if there's anybody out there, a victim or otherwise, that has information, I beg them to come forward. So, you know, this. And I've said this many times. There are some people who are just flatly conspiracy minded, but there are also other people who just don't believe this. You have to understand that the evidence either exists or it doesn't. He can't just create evidence and just go ahead and charge people. That's not how this works. Everyone, and I understand why someone says there's got to be evidence. Sure, but it doesn't mean they have it or it doesn't mean it rises to the level of charges. There was also some conversation between them about Jack Smith, you know, spying on members of Congress. Maybe later on in the show, we'll get to it. But. There was nothing any, like, there wasn't any big takeaway today. It was fairly mundane, yeah. Yeah, it just, it is what it is. And I think part of the issue is that Todd Blanche is so imminently qualified. You might not like him as a person, right? He's clear, he's overqualified. Oh, he's too close to the president. Yeah, he should have got his brother to be the attorney general or his wingman. I just, that's the best that you can do on the left on this one. The only question is, will we have enough support from the Republicans? And you've got Bill Cassidy. You've got South Carolina. What's his name? Thom Tillis. Oh, North Carolina. North Carolina. Excuse me. You've got, you know, John Cornyn, who are very upset with the president. So, you know, it's not a given that this is going to sail through, although it should. Let's find out what else is trending. What's trending in Pierce County? Usually when I get a random direct message on Instagram, it goes one of two ways. Someone's giving me a tip, which I appreciate, or someone's yelling at me about something I said that they don't like. But every once in a while, I get something that's really worth talking about and celebrating on air. There is a business, an ice cream and candy shop out in Gig Harbor that for the last 35 people that they've hired, all dealing with living with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The place is called Couple of Scoops, Ice Cream and Candy, and the guy who runs the shop, Jim Chachu, joins me now. Jim, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much, Jason. I really appreciate it. Obviously, you're making a choice. You say on your website that you're purposefully creating jobs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, two scoops at a time. What made you decide to go down that avenue? Sure. Basically, I've got four children. One of them is my daughter, Molly. Molly is 25 and she has autism. And about six years ago, when I knew she was going to be getting out of high school, there weren't jobs for Molly. Like there's 80% of the autistic and down-center population are unemployed. And so when Molly was getting out of school. I was trying to figure out, okay, what could I create for Molly? I'm a business owner that could employ Molly and give her a job. And so truthfully, I just started thinking about it, praying about it, and novelty socks popped into our head. And we actually started with a socks store in the Tacoma Mall called a couple of socks about three and a half years ago. And... That opened up. We employed Molly and eight of her friends there, and we watched that grow over the years. And I just watched Molly and her friends grow in self-confidence, in communication skills, and everything like that. And about a year and a half ago, I started thinking, okay, do we open up another store? What do we do? And I thought, you know, not another sock store. Let's do something different. Started thinking about it, praying about it again. And truthfully, ice cream and candy popped into my head and started the process of thinking through it, praying through it. And literally I went to ConeCon last year in Miami Beach, Florida, last November, went to ice cream school. And then in January, we secured a space over here in Gig Harbor. And we started building it out. And when we put some signs up on the windows that we were coming soon and that we, again, it's purposeful. I'm only doing this to employ people with special needs. And in Gig Harbor, as I would take Molly to social groups, truthfully, Jason, if I take Molly to a Wednesday social group, there's over 100 people that go to that that have special needs. Again, autism or down syndrome. And I just stand there and I look and I go, this is a population of people that are looking for jobs. And in our community here, we have a Fred Meyer and a Safeway and they each hire maybe one or two, but there's nothing else. And so, you know, we put the signs that were coming. And by the time we're getting ready to open, we've been open six weeks now. But we had 49 people with special needs apply for jobs. to our couple of scoops ice cream and candy store. And we hired 35 of them. So we opened up June 1st. And we've been open seven days a week. It's been just incredible. The community has just been fantastic in coming in and supporting us. We've had lines out the door almost every day. It's been wonderful. I've got to tell you. And if you come in and you see our staff.

Our staff, they're incredible, and they love having a job. They'll smile at you. You never see a staff member in our store, Jason, have a cell phone in their hand. That's awesome. You typically see, you mean, you see that, anywhere you go these days, right? They're engaged. They welcome you when you come in. They're happy to scoop ice cream for you. Yeah, so that's just kind of what I've done. I mean, I built it for them. And it's... It's been an incredible, incredible thing to watch as people are coming into the store and really seeing that it's not just ice cream. It's not just candy. It's creating jobs for people that can't have jobs. And when you see how happy they are to be there, your heart gets filled. And I'm not just saying that. People all day long tell us. Thank you for building this. Thank you for being here. And you know what? It's all God. I have to say, I'm just doing what I feel led to do. I love it. And I imagine just it's not just about making them happy. I mean, this gives them life skills. It gets them to be, you know, more of a part of the community. And I imagine there have been some challenges, I guess, and just maybe some of the training. But for the most part, it seems like it's going pretty smoothly. Well, you know, that's the thing is, you know, we're not your typical business again. So I created it for them to work. I don't take anything from it financially. It's built for them. And so, again, not being a typical employer, everybody who works there, they can do everything in the store or they can't. Nobody is let go because they can't do something. So if some of our staff can scoop, and greet, and then some of our staff can clean, or they can stock, or they can do the register. Everybody has jobs that they want to do or can do, and then we stretch. We say, do you want to try this? We have some people that come and work in our store, and they literally stand in the front and will hand you a menu and sing to the music, whether it's Christian music or country music, that we have rotating through our sound system. Just to let you know that when you're coming in, you're coming into a happy place. But truthfully, whatever the job is, you're not going to fail at it because we don't put a time frame or a constraint on what you have to do. You're designing it thoughtfully. You're designing it so that nobody fails. That's exactly it. It's a job skills and it's a life skills thing that we just want them to grow as people. That's it. I love it. Serve great ice cream. The website is couple of scoops.com. They're located in Gig Harbor at 5500 Olympic Drive at Northwest. I hope people who are in the area are willing to make a little bit of a drive to go out there for some really great ice cream and candy, but also to give back to the community. you know, do something that's going to put a smile on your face. Maybe a couple pounds around the waist with all the ice cream. But for the most work you're doing this because it's supporting people who are doing their darndest to make sure that, you know, they're not kind of dismissed or forgotten. I imagine it's not easy to get a job if you're dealing with, you know, if you're living with.

intellectual or developmental disabilities and Jim is doing what he can to support that community. I think we should be supporting it too. Again, it's couple of scoops.com. They are out in Gig Harbor. Jim Chachu, thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm glad I don't always look at my Instagram DMs, but I'm glad for whatever reason I was called to respond to this one, and I'm glad I saw it, Jim. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you, Jason. I listen to you. I support you. And thank you for it for doing here in our area and community too, buddy. I appreciate it. I really do appreciate that. But this is about you, not me for the moment. It's CoupleofScoops.com. Go check them out. They're open into the evening. I think most nights they're open until either 9 or 10. All the information is available at CoupleofScoops.com. You're listening to the Jason Rancho. When we come back, we're going to dive into the big local. Some bad news for Marie. Glusencom Perez, which is good news for Republicans. We'll explain when we return on the Jason Rants show. Did you know every qualifying new and used vehicle at Sunset Auto Family comes with oil changes for life? Get up to five a year. That's going to save you thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your vehicle. So visit our friends at the Sunset Auto Family in Auburn and Sumner online at sunset autofamily.com.

The Seattle Red App, a new experience for Seattle Conservatives. It's usually you don't get this kind of thing. Listen live or catch up if you missed your favorite show. Trump told reporters, yeah, we're thinking about a little rebate. Send us a message right from the app. And what is that message? The Seattle Red app is also your home for news and opinion, all from conservative voices you trust. Are you sensing the trend? A new experience for Seattle Conservatives. That crowd that is influential enough. Download the Seattle Red app today. Olympia, Sammamish, Lakewood, Bellevue. This is the big local on the Jason Ranch Show. Bellingham, Kirkland, Zetown. Stories about you, not about Seattle. Hey, look at the time 430 on a weekday afternoon. That means it's time for the big local brought to you by the Scott Jennings show heard weeknights 8 to 10 right here on Seattle Red 770.m. online at Seattle Red.com. This is the part of the show where we completely ignore the stories coming out of Seattle and instead we focus all of our attention. on the communities you live in and care about most. We start in Washington's third congressional district, let's just head on over to Washougal, which is the home of Congresswoman Marie Gluconkamp Perez, who is the Democrat in a red district, a district that twice went to Donald Trump, but she somehow got elected not once but twice. because she was running against a flawed candidate in Joe Kent. If only we knew how flawed he was back then. We would not have made the same mistake twice in pushing for him. But she's been seen as in trouble, vulnerable by the political establishment, looking at her and saying, okay, this is a possible, if not even probable pickup for Republicans who have Republican John Braun, the state Senate majority leader who is running. And they just over at the Northwest Progressive Institute, which is a far left pollster here in Washington, they just did a poll that showed the incumbent Democrat is still behind. Not by a bunch. And this is a close poll for her. And to be fair, it's within the margin of error. But when you are the incumbent, that's not good. That is not good. They did the poll with Emerson College. And it was from July 8th through July 10th. And John Braun was ahead by a point 43 to 42%. Then when you heard excerpts from the August voter pamphlet. From both sides, he increased his lead, again, 45, still one above her 44, but ends up inching him up two points and her up two points. In August, we get the primary. Actually, on Friday, you're going to get the ballots start to get mailed out to you. We talked last hour with a judge who's running for the state Supreme Court. But when you look...

specifically at the top two in the August primary, his numbers still lead. And, you know, they try to dress up the numbers in a bit. Not because they're wrong. It is a statistical tie. But when you read the analysis from what's is, Andrew Villeneueva, who's the guy who runs NPI Northwest Progressive Institute, far left guy who's an activist. And he's doing his best in the analysis to try to claim this is not that big of a deal. With respect, it is very much a big deal. This is not the first warning sign for Gusen-Comp Perez. I mean, when you look specifically at the undecided or uncommitted voters, you've got a lot who are Democrats and independents. They're not Republicans. The Republicans have largely consolidated behind Braun. Just 4% of the Republicans were listed in this poll as undecided. compared to 14% of Democrats and 14% of independents. Now, you have to assume that a lot of the independents, excuse me, a lot of the Democrats will end up breaking for Marie Gluconcom-Perez. That's generally how Democrats will vote. But the problem is, depending on the makeup of those Democrats, are they progressives who don't like Marie-Glucent-Comp-Perez? Are they moderates who don't like Marie Glucentumber? We don't know. But even it, let's just say 14%, let's just say she gets 10% of those and maybe 4% don't vote. That seems kind of reasonable to me. The question then is the 14% of the independence. And the independence in a red district, you have to assume, probably lean a little bit further to the right than they do to the left. Again, this is a red district that went for Trump. both times. Trump was not the issue in the last two elections. It was Joe Kent. So my guess is the more people find out about John Braun, the better it is for him. And if he can pick up some of those independents, bam, with the lead he already holds, that's the entire ballgame. That's the ball game. The reality is John Braun is in a really good position. And there's some irony in all of that because Gluson-Camp-Perez has taken strategic votes with Republicans or at least against the Democrats while serving in the House. So she could claim that she's some sort of moderate when she's not. The reality is she's going to vote with the Democrats if the Democrats have the majority in the House. And again, I presume they're going to have the majority in the House. That's what history tells us. By how many... Votes, I don't know. I don't know. But the reality is she will vote with them 100% of the time if the Democrats take control. And that has to be a huge turnoff for Republicans. But up until this point, she's been taking strategic votes. Vote she knows that the Democrats were always going to lose so that she can then claim, oh, no, I'm a moderate to try to reach those independents. But in doing so, she alienated the far left base of her own party. And if she truly was a moderate, I wouldn't have that big of an issue to take with her votes. Again, some of those votes were the right one. But I don't believe she's a real moderate. I believe she does what a lot of Democrats in swing districts do or in red districts do is they act out strategically with the blessing of the party's leadership.

The party wouldn't be fighting tooth and nail for her if they didn't understand what it was she was doing on some of these votes. So just don't let anyone fool you about this. And remember, this is the latest poll. And the polling that the Northwest Progressive Institute. conduct they are usually pretty accurate so i have no reason to believe that this isn't accurate but this is the closest it's been when you look at the coefficient survey that was commissioned by the republicans two months ago three months ago brawn was up seven points and after that poll came out inside elections moved the seat from tilt democratic to toss up so that was a downgrade and that cannot feel good if you're Marie Glucon-Camperez or Democrats who hope to hang on to this seat. And at the end of this, let's say they do hang on to it. And it's hard to defeat an incumbent. Even when the polling is not favorable to the incumbent, it's still very difficult to beat an incumbent. And we're still talking about what will likely be a low turnout election, which harms Republicans more than it does Democrats in a blue state. But even if she ends up winning. They're going to spend on the left a ton of money in this seat, a ton of money that they don't have. The Republicans have been outraising the Democrats nationally, and they've got a larger war chest of cash on hand that they can give to districts like this. And you can argue, yeah, well, that means they're going to be spending money. They're also spending money, and they'll spend a lot of money in Washington's third congressional district. But they're spending money that they have versus Democrats spending money that they don't. That's the problem that Democrats are going to have to figure out. So at the end of this, I'm actually really happy with these numbers. John Braun is a tremendous candidate. Make sure when you get your ballot, you are turning it in immediately. So if you're in Washington's third congressional district, that includes Vancouver, battleground. Make sure you're sending in that vote for John Braun. Please make sure you're sending in that vote for John Braun. Meanwhile, a very gross and unfortunate story. I kind of hate these stories, but I do think that they're important to talk about and call out when they happen. A harbor seal pup was rescued from the Smith Gardens title flats out in Bellingham after being shot in the head. Who would do something like that? What kind of sick monster would do something like that? Seriously. It's so disgusting. The pup was found when it was about three weeks old. It was taken to sea life response rehab and research according to Como News. And they took some x-rays and they found out that this poor pup had been shot and they don't know who did it. Now, the seal is recovering. But this is, I believe, the third shooting that had taken place where they found, at least in the two other cases, they weren't pups, there were adult harbor seals found with gunshot wounds to the head.

One was rescued in the Hood Canal area, the other one in Quilcine, but those two ended up dying from their injuries. Executive Director for this facility, a veterinary nurse, Casey McLean, spoke with Como. Doing an exam, we discovered a head wound. We took x-rays to see what was going on there and discovered that this animal had been shot. We have seen lots of animals that wash up deceased often where we discovered they have been shot. However, what is new is to see these animals that are surviving the gunshot and coming in and suffering, which is very unfortunate and frankly disturbing. Yeah, that's an understatement. It really is disturbing. So disgusting. Now, Como says that the facility believes the shootings may be fueled by the misconception that seals are responsible for declining salmon populations. So these are, they, if that's true, these are, I mean, I'm presuming leftist environmentalists who are trying to, quote unquote, save the salmon. But they point out that Harbor Seals eat more than 60 species of marine life and eliminating seals or sea lions would do virtually nothing to restore salmon runs because of the other issues that are impacting them. So they're looking at the science and saying if this is what you think. is going to help. You're not helping anything. You're just shooting and possibly killing totally innocent, adorable baby seals, little pups. So shame on whomever's responsible. Then finally, the Spokane... County area is looking at accepting about a million dollars in grant funding for public defense services. They're facing a lawsuit over the new case load standards that the Washington State Supreme Court. put in place a few months ago, it might have been even the end of last year, where they had basically said, we're going to take away how many cases at a mandatory caseload these public defenders can handle. This was part of the Washington State Bar Association or the, excuse me, the Public Defenders Association saying, oh, we're overwhelmed. We can't take on these cases. The caseload. maximum and minimums are wrong. We need fewer cases so we can spend more time on our clients. They made it sound like what they were doing was for the good of the community and their clients when the reality is they were just trying to further their very obvious attempts.

at releasing people or preventing them from being charged in the first place. This was always a lie from the beginning. And they went to the state Supreme Court because they're filled with far left justices who are totally okay going in the direction of just letting people out of jail. Now, according to the center square. The state awarded the county $941,297 for, quote, improving the quality of public defense services. The funding would go from this month through June of 2027. They can use the grant at the county level to hire attorneys and support staff. They could increase salaries. They conduct system evaluations, all these different things. But they're not able to use the money to supplant existing funding or spending it on administrative functions. So essentially saying, yeah, you're going to use this, but we're not giving this to you so you can not spend $941,000 of your own. This is $941,297 in addition to what it is you're spending now. If approved, the grant funding, the Center Square says, could help expand the county's public defender's office budget to comply with the new caseload standards. And the problem is, and we knew this going in. counties all across the state were essentially saying you're making us pay for these new caseload standards we would have to hire more people number one we already have a problem in attracting attorneys to work as public defenders but two you're impacting our budgets but not giving us any of the money to pay for it you're saying we have to do this but we don't have the money to do it where is that money coming from And so this is at least a partial attempt to cover some, and just in the short term, just for a year. They say at the Center Square, meanwhile, the county faces a $30 million general fund deficit ahead of 2027 that has led the board to consider several different taxes as a way to balance the budget. Addressing public defender caseloads could prove a challenge in the years ahead. And some have already filed a suit against the county over them. So they're just, this is a crisis that the Washington State Supreme Court decided to create. They did this. This was not done at the county level. This was done at the state level. And this is one of those issues we talked with Justice or Judge Dave Stevens about last hour. The Mason County judge who's running for Washington State Supreme Court. He's saying you're seeing all of these changes get made at the state Supreme Court level. They're administrative in action, which generally means people aren't including the media, paying attention to it. The only people who really know about these things happening are judges and attorneys. Now, to be clear, we talked about this on the show for several months last year. We heard from members of the, you know, the prosecuting attorney's offices in, I think it was Franklin County, Benton County. We talked with Snohomish County, Jason Cummings. Like, we've talked about this a lot and tried to sound the alarms. But generally, outside of like one or two stories, maybe, maybe, that ended up in liberal.

You know, media outlets. I think Seattle Times did one, maybe one of the TV networks. I can't remember. I'm sure the Center Square did it, but they're not a left-wing rag. It just really didn't get a whole lot of attention. But this matters. When we don't have enough public defenders, we don't see charges against people who need to be charged. And that was the biggest issue. And so Judge David Stevens had pointed out, you see all these decisions that are getting made by left-wing activist judges on the Supreme Court. And there's no one really to come in and stop them, which is why when you have five open seats, we can dramatically change the dynamics on the court. This is our opportunity. But the only way we're going to be able to do that is if we vote. So again, the ballots are getting sent out on Friday. Many of you who are listening right now will have ballots on Saturday. Do not wait until the last minute. Every day you wait to vote is another day that something can happen that gets in the way of you turning in your ballot. And no, voting at the last minute to quote unquote avoid cheating does not mean anything. Folks on the left are counting on you waiting until the last minute. You vote early if something happens with your ballot, which you can track. you'll be able to cure it quickly. Beyond that, campaigns will know when your ballot gets turned in. They don't know how you vote, but they know that you're going to get, you've turned in your ballot, which means if they have you written down as someone who's a definite voter for, say, Judge David Stevens or Dave Larson or John Braun or whomever it is you're voting for, if they have you internally as a hardcore Republican, They're not going to waste time and energy trying to get you to turn in your ballot. That's what happens. They spend money and time trying to contact you to make sure that you turn in your ballot when they see you haven't turned it in. So please, please, please turn in your ballots when you get them. You need any help on who to vote for? You let us know. 1,800, 465, 8774.6.877. We come back. You pick the news. Story number one, Bill Maher rips NPR to their faces. Or story number two. A Florida woman is the talk of her town with a racy license plate that she got in the mail. It is pretty racy. Which one should we discuss? 1,800, 465, 877. You vote. We talk when we come back on the Jason Rancho. Thanks for downloading the Jason Ranch Show podcast. I really do appreciate it. Be sure to check out our brand new website, Seattlered.com. News, opinion, analysis without any of the left-wing spin covering the entirety of the Pacific Northwest. Check it out throughout the day, read stories, share stories, and watch exclusive videos. That's Seattlered.com. Now, back to the Jason Ranch Show.

You picked the topic on the Jason Rand Show. Indeed, you do. You're curious. About what Bill Maher had to say. I like Bill Maher. I don't always agree with him. But he's at least a reasonable Democrat who will call out the nuttiness on his side. And he calls out the nuttiness on NPR. I thought this was pretty funny. He was talking to Steve Inskeep. Is he their media guy? I think he is, maybe. I had never heard of him. I've heard the name before. And if it, I mean, it would make sense if he's the one who's interviewing Bill Maher. But listen to what Bill had said. Your audience is going to love this, by the way. The audience is a little more diverse than you might think. Really? Sure. Some people. I mean, I'm surprised you even had me on. It's a fake laugh, by the way. And I'll let him finish, but very quickly. You're telling me you, this guy believes or wants us to believe that the audience is diverse for NPR. Have you ever, ever, ever met a conservative who listens to NPR? NPR is for phony academics who are hardcore liberals. It's for college professors and the people who go to college in their 40s. That's it. I don't even think that people listening to it think it's interesting. It just makes them feel enlightened. Yeah. It's what you're supposed to do. So it's like when you have a subscription to the New Yorker, but you've never even opened it. You just want it on your coffee table. Because I just think of this place is so different than what it used to be. And like I would what I always want people to do, but it's so hard to get people to do these days is just just engage with the argument. You can hate me, whatever, for whatever your reasons. You know, I'm too old. Whatever I am, are you engaging with the argument? No. Tell me if I'm wrong about something. And then we're going to be cool. But that's not what either extreme does in this country anymore. And I maybe I'm wrong, but I think of this place is like on the far extreme of the left. And by the way, it's true. I think that conservatives can fall into this. I don't think conservatives fall into it as much as. liberals do in large part because most of media is liberal. We just have fewer options. I guess there's the person who only watches the OAN network or whatever and only watches Matt Bill Gates. Okay, I'm assuming they count. But I don't know. I feel like we're even. Even if we only want to consume conservative media, we get hit with left wing media all the time. Because it's the water we swim in. Yeah. So I don't know if we're as bad as the left on that. Well, maybe. You're not wrong. Maybe there's a little more variety in who we talk to than you might have been told. Who you talk to is different than like what people believe. And what they say. Are there beliefs that the audience can be.

It's like saying, oh, no, we have conservatives on all the time. We just had Adam Kinsinger on. Okay. We just had Liz Cheney on. Oh, okay. Yeah, cool. You know, examine this. Oh, you know, I think that's a good point. Maybe, or is it just like, no, that's done. That's not conform to the one true opinion. So, you know, I mean, it's. Well, I'm with you. We want to hear all kinds of people. And we go out of our way to do it. That is such a lie. That is absolute lunacy. Just total lunacy, which is precisely why he doesn't come up and say, oh, and by the way, we have so on. If you want to know more about this, go to NewsBusters. They have usually a PBS story or an NPR story. Once a month on how they have like zero guests who represent the conservative viewpoint or it's like seven to one, something like that. Yeah, NPR. What conservatives hate NPR because it's fair and honest and invite them on all the time. We got to thank Steve Inskeep. 1-800-465-8-770 for your text. Don't forget to check out seattlered.com. For news and opinion without any of the left-wing spin plus video, podcast, everything is there. Seattlered.com.